A student has been jailed for 2 years and 8 months for destroying her female lecturer’s life with some seriously screwed up lies that involved her faking terminal cancer.
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22-year-old Elisa Bianco from Cornwall met Mrs Rettallack when she was 16 and enrolled on a health and social care diploma at St. Austell College. She aced her first year, but when Mrs Retallack became her personal tutor in year 2, she began telling some porkies that would eventually result in turning the lecturer’s life completely upside down.
She told Mrs Rettallack she had been abused by her alcoholic parents and had just three months before her cancer killed her, faking hospital appointments and doctor’s notes when in reality there was nothing wrong with her.
Here she is with photographic “evidence” she was at hospital – in reality she just showed up at Royal Cornwall Hospital and took a photo in the waiting room:
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Mrs. Rettallack fell for it though, and quit her job to help Elisa out with her bucket list.
Elisa spent a lot of time at Rettallack’s home, which caused a rift between Rettallack and her husband. Elisa used “mind games” to eventually split them up.
From there, Elisa created a fake online dating profile and managed to convince Rettallack that she was a recently widowed consultant physician named John.
They grew close online after exchanging a load of intimate e-mails, but before they could meet, Elisa killed off the imaginary character, bringing more grief and devastation into Rettallack’s life. She ended up moving to France in an effort to start fresh.
In the end, the lies were unravelled when Rettallack’s suspicious husband tracked down Elisa’s father who told him “something of the truth”. Mrs Rettallack then went to Royal Cornwall Hospital, where they informed her they had no knowledge of Elisa. That must have been an absolutely mind-blowing moment of truth.
Elisa has been jailed after pleading guilty to stalking and causing serious alarm and distress.
The judge said:
You were like an uninvited cuckoo fledgling in the nest of a willow warbler — an unexpected offspring demanding to receive constant attention.
Most chilling was the callous and cruel deception to create a fictitious hospital consultant.
You heartlessly manipulated Mrs Retallack’s deepest emotions. No sentence will compensate her.
It’s pretty frightening that there’s people out there capable of this type of thing, but I suppose the truth always comes out in the end. Unfortunately this lecturer’s life was ruined before it did. Still – lesson learned. Don’t think she’ll be giving her trust away too easily from now on.
Is it as savage as the comedian who lied about being in the WTC on 9/11 though? Debatable.
